The project is designed to assess the changing lifestyles, values, and preferences of American youth on a continuing basis. The heart of the monitoring system consists of a series of annual, nationwide questionnaire surveys of seniors in high schools, which began with the class of 1975. In addition, annual follow-up surveys will be mailed to a subset of each sample for the first five years following their graduation. This design, which samples most young American men and women in the age range of approximately 18 to 23, will permit us to distinguish four kinds of trends: (1) changes from one graduating class to another, (2) life cycle or maturational changes which show up consistently for all graduating classes, (3) changes in particular years reflected across all age groups (secular trends), and (4) changes linked to different types of environments, such as college, military service, trade school or employment. The issues addressed are broad in scope and of fundamental importance to the nation: views about lifestyles, confidence in social institutions, intergroup and interpersonal attitudes, concerns about conservation and ecology, behaviors and attitudes related to drug use, and other social and ethical issues. A major emphasis is placed on drug use (and attitudes about drugs) both because the use of drugs is itself a particularly serious problem among young people, and also because it is a symptom of other deeper problems and discontents.